Halloween how to: nail art

Next up in my halloween how to series is nail art! Ten spooky designs step by step.

I used a mix of polishes (mainly Models Own) & my nail art pens. Here's how you do it.

Frankenstein

1. Paint your base coat. I used a light turquoise (Peppermint by Rimmel).
2. Add the hair and do a line with dashes (stitches!) across it.
3. Paint two white dots for eyes.
4. Lightly dot two pupils.

Dripping blood

1. Paint your base coat. It's best to use a colour that will let the red stand out clearly.
2. Use white polish to paint a guide for where the red will go.
3. Add red on top. I deliberately made it really gloopy.

Mummy

1. Pick your base colour. I was tempted to use white for this, but thought yellow would look more like decaying bandages.
2. Paint a thick line near the top (this is the gap where the eyes are going), and criss-crossing lines across the rest of the nail to look like bandages.
3. Add two white dots.
4. Dot red on top to make evil eyes!

Teeth

1. Paint a dark base coat. I had a black polishes with a very gentle gold shimmer which worked perfectly.
2. Roughly paint two strips of white - one at the top and one at the bottom of your nail. Then paint teeth, a mix of fangs and smaller teeth.
3. Go over the top and bottom of the nail with red polish.

Candy cane

1. Paint a white base coat (my white polish is on the end of its tether, but it's okay that it isn't too smooth as only a little is showing).
2. Add a yellow layer of polish, about a third of the way up.
3. Add an orange layer over the last third.

Pumpkin

1. Paint an orange base coat. I striped another shade of orange over this for a bit more depth, but it's hard to make out here (maybe it's too subtle!).
2. Paint on a pumpkin face with a black nail art pen.
3. Add a wee zig zag of green at the top of the nail to make the stalk.

Skull

1. Paint a white base coat. Again, I knew I was going to layer this polish so it doesn't matter that it was a little bit bumpy!
2. Lightly sponge on some grey across the nail.
3.  Paint on eyes, a nose and teeth.

Spider web

1. Pick your base colour. It could be anything, I used the same purple that I used for the dripping nail to tie the set together.
2. Paint lines across the nail, coming from one corner.
3. Join them up with little curved lines to make the web.

Cat

1. Pick your base colour. I used the same colour as the frankenstein nail.
2. Paint the shape in small stages - a semi-circle, then triangle ears, then a curved line for the tail.
3. Use a green nail art pen to paint two teardrop shapes. Add a black line to each to make the eyes.

Beetlejuice stripes

1.  The easiest one of the lot! I used the same shimmery black that I did with the teeth nail.
2. Paint on white stripes.

& that's it! If that's too much of a halloween overload for your nails then you could pick one design and use it as an accent nail.

Or if you do like it, but can't be bothered painting them yourself, then you can buy this set from me on etsy! I've been thinking about setting up an etsy shop for a while.. so this is a wee experiment to see if it's of interest. Fingers crossed!